So long as you set up an elaborate trap with the intention of killing, but don't pull the trigger yourself.

You're entitled to your own opinion, but not to your own dictionary.

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
    To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
    Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
    And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
    And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
    To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
    We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
    But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
    You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
    For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
    You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
    No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
    And the nation that pays it is lost!"

...also sees cracks in accepted theory

And whose ability to spot those cracks mysteriously vanishes every Sunday morning for about two hours, along with any desire to do so.

Somebody should look into that. There might be a pill for it.

Yeah, it was a stupid idea to begin with, from an otherwise-brilliant man.

Geez, a guy can't come out in favor of fair trials without getting called an authoritarian. Who knew?

OK, how about "concern troll?" Does that fit any better than "authoritarian?"

As has been pointed out numerous times, the days when someone in Snowden's position could get any semblance of a fair trial are long gone.

In other news, 2007 Chevrolet Cobalts did not offer drive-by-wire transmissions.

Unless the victims were running PDK transmissions in their Cobalts, your insight is not applicable.

If it's not obvious to you that you can (and should) respond to unintentional acceleration by shoving the gearshift into neutral, you shouldn't be driving.

I think Snowden's 'crime' was unfortunately necessary because there was no other way to call attention to the government's Constitutional abuses, past, present and future. But here's the problem with civil-rights era analogies: Rosa Parks, MLK Jr., and other prominent dissidents stuck around and took the heat. They spent time in jails that probably made Guantanamo look like Club Med by comparison. They were attacked by police dogs, sprayed with fire hoses, and were generally treated like shit. In many cases they watched their friends and compatriots die violently.

What they did not do was haul ass to Hong Kong.

Now, I can see why Snowden did that, and I certainly would have done it, myself. Why stick around for the disproportionate punishment that would follow an Espionage Act indictment? Snowden has no reason to believe he would even be given a trial, much less a fair one. He is no different from Anwar Al-Awlaki in this administration's eyes, being a US citizen who (we're told) stepped a little too far out of line for the judicial system to handle. Snowden just has a whiter sounding name, that's all. I don't expect him to martyr himself.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that he did flee to the far ends of the Earth, which isn't a valid act of civil disobedience as we know it from earlier eras. Right or wrong, he can never get that lost moral authority back. So it's best not to defend him by comparing him to Civil Rights figures who faced the consequences of their illegal acts.

I happen to believe in trials. So did the founding fathers.

Great, that makes three of us. We can start with Clapper and Alexander, since they're easy to apprehend and Snowden isn't. We don't even have to extradite them from Russia or Hong Kong. We can send some Federal marshals to pick them up after breakfast tomorrow. Sound good to you?

Can't sleep nights.

We really need a revolution soon, or I think we're going to find that we don't like where we end up. I know it sounds trivial because these are all free services, and most of what's communicated on them is trivial anyway. Still, it's transforming the Internet into a less free place, where we're all at the whim of a small handful of companies. I think it's a bigger problem than we've yet realized.

(Shrug) The next revolution will be co-opted to sell ads, just like the last one was. I don't know what we need, but it's not another "revolution."

(Shrug) DRAM is a lot cheaper than my time.

In other news, U233 decays into Sn120 through antiproton emission. Hatmakers' stocks are up 140%.

Oh, wait, no, actually, further research reveals that the last part was caused by your post.

Physicists spend their time actively trying to poke holes in the Standard Model. Climate scientists seem to start from a conclusion and then look for evidence supporting it.